Why we miss copy editors, part whatever

I was talking with my brother-in-law and his wife the other day. Their son enters third grade this fall, and my wife said to the boy, "Oh, you get to learn how to write cursive this year."

His mother pointed out that the school doesn't teach handwriting any more. Or spelling.

What happens when the kid needs to sign something? Print your signature? I blame school systems that mandate teaching to an aptitude test instead of teaching skills that you need. And yes, spelling, grammar, and penmanship count.

Of course, if they don't teach spelling and grammar any more, at least copy editors will still be needed.

 

What a waste to hear about all that education that isn't happening.

Now I'm going to play some Shoots and Ladders.

 

My cousin's daughter's school doesn't start working on spelling at all until at least 2nd grade. I got a letter from my little cousin the other day that had almost every word spelled wrong - "I m haveing a gret summr." When I was her age, one of my spelling words was scissors.

 

Holy Chute, that's great.

 

What schools don't teach spelling? My son won his school spelling bee in 6th grade. He aced C-A-T.

 

This one got me. I'm actually audibly laughing.

 

Read a 3-inch blurb on my shift last Thursday on the Census Bureau shutting down its toll-free telephone line at the end of the day Friday.

"If you still believe you haven't been counted, it's too late.

The Census Bureau is shutting down its toll-free telephone line Friday . . . "

No, it's not too late. Not for people reading it online Thursday, and not for people reading it in the paper Friday morning or afternoon.

 

I used to write really well in cursive. I've completely forgotten how to do it now.

 

Baaaah!

Get the hell out of my yard!

 

My 5-year-old nephew writes better in cursive than I do.

 

Narrator: As the 21st century began, human evolution was at a turning point. Natural selection, the process by which the strongest, the smartest, the fastest, reproduced in greater numbers than the rest, a process which had once favored the noblest traits of man, now began to favor different traits. Most science fiction of the day predicted a future that was more civilized and more intelligent. But as time went on, things seemed to be heading in the opposite direction. A dumbing down. How did this happen? Evolution does not necessarily reward intelligence. With no natural predators to thin the herd, it began to simply reward those who reproduced the most, and left the intelligent to become an endangered species.

 

I saw sites instead of cites a few days ago in a paper.